Mixing Classic Quadrophenia at the RAH

A classical music reinterpretation of one of The Who’s most intriguing concept albums, Classic Quadrophenia was recently presented at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The production featured the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Oriana Choir, and guest singers Billy Idol, Phil Daniels and Alfie Boe.

London, England (July 15, 2015)—A classical music reinterpretation of one of The Who’s most intriguing concept albums, Classic Quadrophenia was recently presented at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The production featured the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Oriana Choir, and guest singers Billy Idol, Phil Daniels and Alfie Boe.

The PA was provided by Capital Sound, and the Allen & Heath iLive mixing system was comprised two modular iDR10 MixRacks installed on stage and linked using ACE, with an iLive-112 control surface at FOH position linked to the racks using fiber optic and Cat 5 working in tandem. The system needed to manage a total of 128 inputs, with approximately 12 outputs, 16 DCAs, and providing orchestral stems to the monitor board, left and right to the main venue system, and recording feed to the mobile broadcast trucks.

“The iLive-112 surface has a compact footprint which is ideal for theater situations,” said FOH engineer, Ian Barfoot, “but the impressive thing is that I can run the console as a 224-strip surface, using the soft keys to recall different control strip configurations as scene recalls, greatly expanding the scope of what I see in my layers. By programming various soft keys to provide completely different control strip setups for different parts of the orchestra, I can instantaneously recall a different channel configuration all at the touch of a button. In fact, I could multiply up to 9 times the 112 channels…but that’s madness.”

Barfoot also used a laptop running iLive Editor as an extra meter bridge so the system technician could monitor the first 50 microphones, mainly the string section, where most sound reinforcement problems occur. He also used an iPad with the app as a remote control during rehearsals.